Attacks in Damascus Target Symbols of Assad Regime

By

Sam Dagher

Updated Feb. 21, 2013 10:55 p.m. ET

BEIRUT—Dozens of Syrians were killed and wounded on Thursday in a wave of car bombs and mortar attacks targeting political, security and military symbols of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus, according to witnesses, state media and opposition activists.

The attacks were among the deadliest in the capital since the start of the civil war in March 2011. Many observers and analysts said they saw them as an attempt by militant members of the opposition to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Assad to accept a negotiated settlement and relinquish power.

Dozens of people were killed by multiple explosions in Damascus, with the largest appearing to target offices of Assad's governing Baath Party. Sam Dagher has the latest on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.

At least 53 people were killed and 235 wounded in the deadliest attack, which involved a suicide car bombing, Syrian state media said. The attack occurred in Mazraa, a busy area of central Damascus not far from the offices of the governing Baath Party, several ministries and the Russian Embassy. Security has been tight for months in Mazraa, which is bisected by a congested thoroughfare called Thawra Street. Several checkpoints dot the area.

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A handout photo made available by official Syrian agency SANA shows vehicles ablaze close to the site of a large explosion in Damascus on Thursday.
European Pressphoto Agency

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The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group tracking the conflict, said the toll from the attack was at least 61, most of them residents, motorists and passersby. Witnesses and opposition activists said the explosion appeared to miss the intended target, Baath Party headquarters.

Residents and opposition activists said there were three other car bombings in Damascus on Thursday, of a police station, a security unit in charge of telecommunications surveillance and a drug-enforcement agency—all in the Barzeh neighborhood, on the capital's northeastern side.

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One of the car bombings, near Baath Party headquarters, on Thursday.
Zuma Press

Several mortar rounds also hit the Syrian army's general staff headquarters on Ummayad Square, on the city's west side, and nearby Jahez park, as well as other streets and squares known to house government and security offices, according to residents and activists. The observatory said at least 22 people, mostly security-force members, were killed in those other attacks.

Later Thursday, three mortar shells exploded in the Maleki upscale neighborhood on the capital's northwestern side, where Mr. Assad and several members of his regime maintain residences, the observatory said, adding that further details weren't known.

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There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the latest violence. Several antiregime rebel groups, including the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, this month announced the start of a major offensive to "liberate Damascus." The group has previously claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo.

The Assad regime was quick to blame Jabhat al-Nusra and countries backing the rebels, such as Qatar and Turkey, for Thursday's biggest bombing, while some opposition activists accused the regime of orchestrating the attacks itself in order to besmirch the rebels.

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The main opposition umbrella group, known as the National Coalition, issued a statement condemning the attack regardless of "who the perpetrators are and the motives."

Many observers say the fresh violence in Damascus will severely complicate—if not derail—any attempts to forge a peaceful solution to the nearly two-year civil war in Syria. The conflict has claimed more than 70,000 lives, according to the United Nations.

At the U.N. Thursday, Russia blamed the U.S. for blocking a Security Council statement condemning the attacks, charging that Washington was seeking to "justify" terrorism, thereby endangering the security of U.S. diplomatic missions. The U.S. denied the charge, saying it agreed with Russia but wanted to add language to the council text "on the [Syrian] regime's brutal attacks against the Syrian people," said Erin Pelton, the U.S. mission spokeswoman.

The Assad regime, which is backed by Russia and Iran, has sent several signals in recent weeks that it intends to control terms of any potential talks with the opposition, and that discussing the fate of Mr. Assad is off the table.

The opposition remains deeply divided over whether to engage the regime, with some hard-line members actively working to undermine dialogue. Most put Mr. Assad's departure from power as a condition for talks.

A Beirut-based Syrian analyst said he believed Thursday's attacks were probably the work of militant rebel factions with links to foreign powers opposed to dialogue with Mr. Assad. "If this is the start of a series of attacks, then it means more pressure on the regime to accept a negotiated settlement," he said.

The regime showed no hint of compromise. "We tell them from Damascus, we will crush you with an iron fist and fight you until the last drop of blood," said Damascus Gov. Bisher al-Sabban, a confidant of Mr. Assad, shown on Syrian television at the scene of Thursday's attack on Thawra Street. "Not a single terrorist will be left standing on Syrian soil."

Syrian state television broadcast gruesome footage of the aftermath of the bombing, saying it was caused by a suicide bomber who targeted civilians and schoolchildren; it didn't mention regime installations in the area. It also said security forces had foiled a second suicide bombing involving a vehicle packed with 1,500 kilos (3,306 pounds) of explosives.

Several bodies lay on the street amid the wreckage of dozens of burning vehicles and minibuses, as shown on Syrian state television. The bomb left a deep crater in the street, sheared off the facades of several residential buildings and damaged classrooms at a nearby elementary school.

Thawra Street is a hub for the capital's ubiquitous public-transport minibuses. Firetrucks could be seen dousing flames, while thick black smoke engulfed the devastated area.

A witness said he heard three consecutive blasts shortly before noon prayers, and saw a thick plume of black smoke rising from the direction of the Hayat hospital, not far from the Baath Party offices. "God protect us, this was the biggest explosion ever in Damascus and I am sure there were lots of victims," said the man.

Another witness from the adjacent neighborhood of Azbakiya said the impact of the blast blew out the windows and unhinged the doors of his home. "The sound and smoke were horrible," he said.

A woman living in Barzeh, where other explosions occurred, said the attack on the police station there has provoked clashes between rebels and security forces and regime loyalists that were continuing.

She said she had been out shopping and still hadn't been able to go home, where her husband was stuck.

By sundown, many parts of Damascus were deserted, with armed regime security forces in military fatigues as well as in civilian clothes fanning out on the streets, according to residents.

Separately, at least 18 people were killed in an airstrike by the Syrian regime on a rebel field hospital in the southern city of Deraa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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